Will Volvo ad roll over Ford?
We recognize the voice. It's actor Donald Sutherland. Unhurried yet insistent, he urges us to look at government warning labels on sport-utilities. They say the vehicles are prone to roll over. Message: Buy a safe Volvo V70 Cross-Country instead. Well, that was one of the Swedish automaker's radio advertisements. It ran in some markets before SUV-king Ford Motor Co. announced it is buying AB Volvo's carmaking operations. Will the ad be heard again? A Ford official, who asked not to be named, said the company prefers not to have its brands 'cannibalize' one another. But Bob Austin, director of marketing communications for Volvo Cars of North America Inc., maintained, 'Just because there is a change of our ownership does not mean there is a change in the laws of physics.'
SCHREMPP HONORED - Juergen Schrempp, chairman of DaimlerChrysler AG, received the Order of Good Hope, South Africa's highest civilian award, from President Nelson Mandela. Queen Elizabeth II is among the other recipients of the award. Schrempp has represented South Africa in three German states as honorary consul since 1994 and is chairman of Germany's Southern Africa Business Initiative. He worked there for 12 years and calls it his home away from home.
HANDSOME AND HEAVY - Who says commercial trucks lack personality? Ford Motor Co. is readying the launch of the Super Duty F series class 6 and class 7 trucks in April, and the company is pitching the 2000 models as hardworking but well mannered. Maybe even more than that. Ford's take on the trucks' styling: 'Handsome - in a rugged sort of way.'
SALUTE TO A RENAISSANCE MAN -Ford Motor Co., along with Time Warner Inc., is sponsoring an exhibit featuring the work of Gordon Parks, an 87-year-old black photographer and film director. 'Half Past Autumn: The Art of Gordon Parks' consists of 220 photographs that Parks made between 1940 and 1997, plus his films, books and poems. The exhibit, which is touring 13 cities through 2001, is at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Ford Chairman William Clay Ford Jr. called Parks a true American Renaissance man and said he is proud to salute his 'extraordinary achievements.'
